After reading the entries submitted, and the fact that I haven't sponsored a contest in over a decade, I re-read ever poem 4 times to try to pick winners. There were many lovey entries, and one that is definitely an entry from a pro-Trump bot farm that I would like to report, I picked six of my favorite from the list.
i intend to later re-review the six winners and try to isolate 2 of my favorite, but my brother tried to kill himself earlier this month and it's hard for me right now to be jedgemental and non-appreciative.
Sorry for the poor judgining and delay, thank you for participating.
What to Submit?
1 original poem on the theme of Emo music from the early 2000s, any style, though I am privy to free verse, especially when words are evoked in an unsettling rhythm.
I want to feel Helena or the Black Parade by My Chemical Romance, or Love like Winter or Miss Murder by AFI; I want the poems to cut my wrist and black my eye, wink wink Hawthorne Heights, but also American Idiot by Green Day.
I would like to feel startled and nostalgic, as I am sick of the current pop music that seems to have indicated that music has died. Pop culture has become jaded and vapid since popular music is for some reason dominated by sounds made by things such as Taylor Swift and whatever the heck Cardi B and Sabrina Carpenter are...the lack of public taste in music must correlate with the lack of taste in presidents.
I want lyrically-talented anger against any status quo, because considering the state of music and politics, the current status quo is barf.
Also the entries are due on April 8, 2025. Please make me feel both dead and alive at the same time.
Any form is acceptable.
Prizes
First Prize, Glory
Second Prize, Glory
Third Prize, Glory
Twelve Honorable Mentions
Preparing Your Entry
Submit one copy of your poem online. Format your poem. Please make your entry easy to read — no illustrations or fancy fonts.
English Language
Poems should be in English. Poems translated from other languages are not eligible, unless you wrote both the original poem and the translation.
A Note to Poetry Contestants
You are welcome to enter this contest, whether or not you won a prize in one of my previous contests.